This morning the surf was anywhere from 6ft (if you're Hawaiian) to 10ft (for an Australian) up to 12 ft (as a Californian) but due to the strong onshore wind and stormy conditions, everyone agreed it was incredibly difficult to surf making the stellar performances by the best in the world that much more impressive.
Pancho Sullivan, on a foamy one, well over his head. How big would you call it?
A couple bombs approaching. These are way bigger and chunkier than they look!
Jordy Smith prepares to get swept down the beach and do some duckdiving. He was matched up against Chris Ward and Andy Irons. Andy scored a couple reasonably solid waves and ripped them apart. Jordy had one good one but fell on what could have been his backup and he will surf again in Round 2 along with Chris Ward who looked disinterested in the choppy conditions.
Bede Durbidge was beated solidly by WCT Rookie Dan Ross, who scored an 8 and a 9.
Rookie Jay "Bottle" Thompson took down fellow rookie Kai Otton in their matchup.
Nic Muscroft only lives 1km away and scored one solid score but was unable to back it up against Joel Parkinson.
Everyone wants to be Mick Fanning!
The fans literally chased Mick up the beach after his uncharacteristic 3rd place finish behind Ace Buchan and wildcard Stuart Kennedy.
Despite the relentlessly cold wind, I truly enjoyed watching the action today. The highlight for me was the high scoring heat by Dan Ross since he is on my Fantasy Surfer team (go team!) and having him take down high rated Bede Durbidge was exciting. Of course, after Adriano De Souza scored a 9.5 against Kelly, I thought Round 2 might be particularly interesting with Bede, Mick, Jordy and Kelly, but true to classic Kelly Slater style, he scored a 9.5 himself to take the win. It was very exciting!
The man behind the camera for go211.com, Dwayne Fetch, hard at work!
Uh-oh, gotta go! Someone has buried the world champ in the sand. I'd better go dig out my friend!
; )
